Federal Judges Against Requirement that Saved Joan Rivers' Life

Federal judges are having a field day lately striking down what abortion proponents call draconian new laws that require abortionists to have admitting privileges at their local hospital.

Abortion proponents say this imposes an “undue burden,” and they are “medically unnecessary.” An article in the American Prospect even called such laws “an assault” on women.

Federal judges have begun to agree. A judge in Texas struck down such a law a few weeks ago. A judge in Louisiana issued a restraining order on such a law that took effect yesterday.

What’s Joan Rivers got to do with this? As pro-lifer blogger Jill Stanek reports this week, Rivers went into respiratory and cardiac arrest on August 29th after a “routine throat procedure, a “minor procedure,” an “outpatient surgery.” These are all terms used to describe abortions.

Rivers was taken by ambulance to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she is in critical condition.

Stanek noted that NBC News chief medical editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, said on the Today Show on August 29th that hospital admitting privileges may have saved Rivers’ life:

The really important thing here is that every time you think you are going to have a procedure, no matter how minor, you have to constantly remind yourself that although these things are rare, they can happen. And one more thing I should say, make sure your doctor has admitting privileges to the local hospital, because in this case it may well have save Joan Rivers’ life.

Stanek points out that on the one hand, hospital admitting privileges for a minor procedure likely saved Joan Rivers’ life, yet similar requirements for abortionists are an undue burden and a violation of a woman’s constitutional rights.

She calls this “the abortion distortion.” What is sound medical advice in other areas suddenly becomes a constitutional problem with regard to abortion. She says, “Who would want to go to a doctor who can’t get hospital admitting privileges? And why shouldn’t (sic) abortion clinics be allowed to operate as substandard medical facilities simply to protect abortion?”

The New York Daily News reported yesterday that Rivers is being brought out of a medically induced coma and may sue her doctor for a botched procedure, and that she may end up in a vegetative state or in a wheel chair.